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BATTLE OF KING’S MOUNTAIN 


OCTOBER 7, 1780 


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ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI 
IN THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, AT 


CHARLOTTE, APRIL 19, 1907 


BY 
FRANKLIN BREVARD McDOWELL 


PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY 


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BATTLE OF KING’S MOUNTAIN 


OCTOBER 7, 1780 


ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI 
IN THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, AT 


CHARLOTTE, APRIL 19, 1907 


BY 
FRANKLIN BREVARD McDOWELL 


PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY 


Raleigh 
Commercial Printing Company, Printers and Binders 
1907 


p 182 5f 


THE BATTLE OF KING’S MOUNTAIN 


Fellow-members of the North Carolina Society of the Cin- 
connate: 


The battle of King’s Mountain is unique in its character, 
and almost without a parallel in the annals of the old civil- 
zation and the new. The victory was a triumph of a principle 
which has shaken society to its centre and disrupted many 
of the governments of the world. By its ending, the doctrine 
of the divine right of kings perished in America, and the 
divine right of the people to select their rulers was established. 
General Washington regarded this event as one of surpassing 
brillianey, and readily foresaw in its termination, the culmi- 
nation of the American Revolution. 

Had the conflict ended differently, the odium of rebellion 
and the reproach of a lost cause would have attached to the 
name of Washington, the inspiration and founder of our 
Society. His colossal figure now stands upon an imperishable 
base among the statesmen, patriots and chieftains of the — 
world. 

The brief sketch, which I shall read, was prepared from 
unpublished letters written by Governor Isaac Shelby, one 
of the foremost officers in the battle of King’s Mountain, and 
from traditional testimony of the neighborhood, collected 
from reliable sources, and I feel that the account, as far as it 
goes, 18 as substantially correct as history can be. The un- 
published documents referred to were found some years ago 
in a secret drawer of a piece of family furniture, and were 
among the papers of my grandfather, Franklin Brevard, who 
at the time of his death was collecting material with which 
to write a full description of this great event in the history 
of the American Colonies. 


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After the defeat of General Gates and the surprise and 
complete dispersion of Generals Sumter and McDowell’s com- 
mands, no appearance of an American corps existed to the 
southward of Virginia, and many of the Whigs from the 
Carolinas and Georgia, with General McDowell at their head, 
retreated to the west side of the Alleghany Mountains for 
refuge from a pursuing foe. It was at this gloomy period. 
of the Revolution that General McDowell and Colonels 
Shelby, Sevier and Campbell began to concoct,a plan of col- 
lecting troops and making a forced march to surprise Colonel 
Ferguson, who had advanced up to the foot of the mountains 
on the east side, threatening to lay waste that portion of the 
country for its opposition to His Majesty’s arms. 

It was understood that Ferguson’s army was encamped 
near Gilbert Town; and, as General McDowell with his 
followers, and Colonels Shelby, Sevier and Campbell with 
their regiments, were marching thither, they fell in with 
Colonel Cleveland, an officer of great zeal in the cause of 
liberty, with several hundred men, and later with Colonel 
James Williams and other field officers of distinction from 
South Carolina, and they all joined forces. 

It was now discovered that the American army, thus acci- 
dentally collected without a head, was a mere confused mass, 
incapable, it was thought, of performing any decided military 
achievements.. The senior officers were not popular, there 
being evidence of jealousy among the leaders, and as the cam- 
paign was a volunteer scheme, it developed that those entitled 
to command would not be chosen. It was then determined to 
send for General Morgan or General Davidson to take the 
command, and General Charles McDowell, with the sanction 
of his associate officers, went voluntarily in search of one of 
the Generals. 

To allay the spirit of jealousy and to compliment one of 
another State, Colonel Campbell, of Virginia, was made 
officer of the day; and the Americans, coming sooner than 
expected, upon the trail of the British, deemed it unwise to 


5 


await the mission of General McDowell before making the 
attack. On gaining information of the position of Fergus- 
on’s army, the American line of battle was formed as fol- 
lows: 

Colonel Campbell’s regiment, commanded by himself, 
formed the centre column to the right, and Colonel Shelby’s 
regiment formed. the centre column to the left. The right 
wing was composed of Colonel Sevier’s regiment, Colonel 
Joe McDowell’s regiment, Colonel Winston’s regiment, and 
commanded by Colonel Sevier in front. The left wing was 
composed of Colonel Cleveland’s regiment, the regiments of 
Colonels Williams, Lacey and Brandon, and headed in front 
by Colonel Cleveland himself. In this order, the American 
army, after many struggles and much skirmishing, advanced 
in four lines, until it arrived in sight of the enemy’s camp 
on King’s Mountain at 3 o’clock in the afternoon of Saturday, 
the 7th day of October, 1780. The centre column then wheel- 
ing to the right and left, formed a front, marched up and 
attacked the enemy, while the right and left wings were 
marching around. ‘The action became general, and lasted 
one hour and a half. The Americans had upwards of sixty 
killed and wounded. They killed and took of the enemy 
eleven hundred; and seventy-five of the number were left 
dead upon the field. Among the latter was Colonel Patrick 
Ferguson, who fell at the close of the action. About the 
same time, or shortly afterwards, Colonel Williams was 
mortally wounded by some Tories, and soon died. 

Herewith are given some of the incidents of this remark- 
able battle. Ferguson encamped upon the summit of the 
mountain, and made the impious boast that the ‘Almighty 
himself could not drive him away.” The American backwoods- 
men, raw recruits and undisciplined militia, were the agents 
that God had gathered from the cabins and hamlets of the 
Carolinas, Georgia and Virginia to dispossess the defiant 
disputer. The pinnacle of the mountain was bare, while the 
base and approaches were sheltered by dense undergrowth 


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and friendly trees. These were natural breastworks for the 
Americans, who with but little exposure could pick out 
British and Tories with fatal precision. The habit of sight- 
ing wild game, such as squirrels, hawks, and wolves, at long 
range made these frontiermen the most accurate and danger- 
ous sharp-shooters of the world. 

Ferguson had invented a breech-loading rifle that could be 
fired seven times a minute, but its accuracy and precision 
were not perfect. His regular troops used these guns in this 
engagement, and it was doubtless the first time they had been 
so employed in the War for American Independence. The 
British finding that their vision was impaired and deflected 
by the elevation, sought protection by fitting bayonets in the 
barrels of the carbines, but when they charged, they were 
again at a disadvantage, as they could only use the bayonets 
and could not fire the rifles. 

During the attack, Shelby was impetuous and rushed 
fiercely up the heights. Campbell, with coat off and collar 
open, and imprecating like a teamster, scaled the steepest 
passes. ‘Thrice were the American troops driven back at the 
bayonet’s point, and thrice they recovered and charged again. 
One time Cleveland was driven down, and his followers were 
in great confusion, but he rallied them with the ery, “Come, 
boys; let’s try ’em again. We’ll have better luck next time.” 
A company of tories with butcher knives tied to their guns 
for bayonets, made a desperate, but futile effort to hurl the 
Americans from their vantage ground. The whole mountain 
became surrounded, and all avenues for the British were cut 
off. | 

The British, widely overshooting from their high eleva- 
tion, were mowed and felled by a tempest of deadly hail. 
Refraction was their destruction. Ferguson, proud and im- 
perious, swore that he would never surrender to “such d d 
banditti,” and with his sword cut down two of his own men 
who had hoisted the white flag; and his body pierced with 
many bullets fell from the saddle with one foot hanging in 


is 


the stirrup. At this juncture, when the British had virtually 
surrendered, a band of Tories fatally wounded the intrepid 
Colonel Williams, who, as he fell, besought his companions, 
“For God’s sake not to give up the hill.” To avenge his 
treacherous death, the slaughter became terrific, and men 
who raised the white flag were ruthlessly shot down in the 
maddened frenzy. Captain DePeyster, an officer second in 
command to Ferguson, who had surrendered, addressing 
Colonel Campbell, said, indignantly, “This is d——d un- 
fair,” and the rebuke brought the Whigs to a sense of shame, 
and caused a cessation of the bloody work. This tragic 
occurrence was the daybreak of American liberty. 

General DePeyster thus describes the breech-loading rifle 
invented by Ferguson and first used by him in the battle: 

“The length of the piece itself is fifty inches, weight seven 
and one-half pounds. The bayonet is twenty-five inches in 
length, and one and one-half inches wide, and is commonly 
called a sword-blade bayonet; flat, lithe, yet strong, of fine 
temper, and capable of receiving a razor edge, and when 
unfixed as serviceable as the best balanced cut and thrust 
sword. The sight at the breech is so arranged that, by ele- 
vating, it is equally adapted to ranges ranging from one hun- 
dred to one hundred and fifty yards. The greatest curiosity 
is, namely, the arrangement for loading at the breech.’ 

An English author thus particularized concerning Fer- 
guson’s invention: 

“In these pieces there is an opening on the upper part of 
the barrel, and close to the breech, which is large enough to 
admit the ball. The chamber where the charge is lodged is 
without rifles, and somewhat wider than the rest of the bore, 
so as to admit a ball that will not drop out of the barrel, with- 
out taking on the figure of the rifles and acquiring the rotary 
motion when discharged.” 

James Ferguson, in his biography of Colonel Ferguson, 
says: “As the bore of the British rifle was large and lead was 
searce in the Carolinas, the Americans destroyed all the rifles 
captured at King’s Mountain.” 


8 


Tf tradition is to be credited, Patrick Ferguson was a 
libertine, ‘for he had two mistresses with him at the time of 
his death. Custom, however, seems to have sanctioned such 
practices among the British officers in America at that time, 
and friends and foe alike concede his superb courage and 
magnificent leadership. He had long been a dread and a 
‘ terror to the Americans, and so great was the curiosity to 
look upon his dead face that many of the wounded Americans 
asked to be carried to his corpse, so that they could have that 
satisfaction. There were no coftins obtainable for the burial 
of even the most distinguished dead, but the form of Fergu- 
son, the lion-hearted warrior, was wrapt in a cow’s hide, and 
interred in a ravine near the battle field. He was given the 
best and most costly burial that could then be afforded. 

Miss Sallie Patterson, a nonagenarian, now living near 
Gastonia, relates the following tradition handed down in her 
immediate family. At the siege of Savannah, James Mc- 
Elwee, of York County, South Carolina, with a number of 
other American soldiers, were captured and confined on 
prison ships, and so harshly treated that many of them sick- 
ened and died. During their imprisonment, while the birth- 
day of King George was being celebrated, the commanding 
officer offered a clean suit of clothes, a drink of rum, and a 
good dinner to every prisoner who would shout, ‘‘God save 
the King!” The temptation was so great to the half-starved 
vermin-infested Americans that many, worn-out and_half- 
crazed from weakness, drank the health of the King. But 
McElwee, tearing the shirt from his body, shouted, “God 
save George Washington and the American Colonies,” until 
tired; and then, jumping with both feet upon the garment, 
said defiantly, “McElwee and the vermin will die together.” 
The commander, filled with admiration, patted him upon the 
shoulder and declared that he was too brave a man to die. 
McElwee’s defiance was the spirit that actuated the Ameri- 
cans in the attack at King’s Mountain. 

Continuing, Miss Patterson relates that she had two grand- 
fathers in the engagement at King’s Mountain, one named 


9 


Patterson and the other named Ware. Arthur Patterson, his 
two sons, William and Thomas, and Ben Lindsey belonging 
to Hambright’s company, were surprised by Ferguson’s 
troops at their homes, where they had gone for provisions and 
clothing; and, being tied, were carried to Ferguson’s head- 
quarters. They were tried that night, condemned to be 
hanged, and the hour of execution was fixed at sunrise the 
next morning. Just as Thomas Patterson was being led out 
to the gallows, the firing of the Americans was heard in the 
distance down the mountain, the captors ran for their arms 
and the condemned man made his escape. His companions 
were found, tied and handcuffed after the fight, and were 
released by their friends. At the commencement of the action 
one of Ferguson’s mistresses who had prepared breakfast 
(Ferguson, feeling secure, slept late) ran from the tent with a 
cup of coffee which the British commander drank as his horse 
was being saddled. Mrs. Arthur Patterson, who lived in the 
neighborhood, visited the battle-ground in the afternoon, and 
assisted in caring for the wounded, and Mrs. Bettie Goforth, 
a neighbor, hauled her dead husband home on a sled. A 
young Tory named Pander, belonging to Ferguson’s camp, 
was captured the evening before the battle and terrified into 
disclosing the countersign, and that was the means by which 
the Americans gained such advantageous information. They 
gave the countersign at night, and thus passed the pickets and 
sentinels, and easily gained full knowledge of the enemy’s 
position. 

The battle of King’s Mountain occurred at a time when the 
Americans were worn out, disheartened and well-nigh ready | 
to give up the contest. The British, though sorely harassed 
by the guerrilla warfare, and the hardships unavoidable in 
an enemy’s territory, were sanguine of a speedy termination 
of the bloody strife. They apparently had valid reason for 
such an expectation and hope, because the remnants of the 
regular commands were scattered over a number of contigu- 
ous States and no respectable force of an organized character 


10 


could be heard of within a hundred miles. The result of the 
contest was the virtual close of the Revolution. 

The victory was so unexpected and complete that the 
Americans were astonished at their own temerity, and hur- 
riedly left the field of their triumph, taking along their 
prisoners, fearing that the dreaded Tarleton should overtake 
them and cut them to pieces. On the other hand, the British 
were so overwhelmed by the disaster, and over-estimating the 
number of their new foes, retreated in an entirely different 
direction. The singular spectacle was thus presented of the 
two hostile armies fleeing from each other, and no troops in 
pursuit of either. The activity of the backwoodsmen of the 
border counties was a possibility that no one could safely pre- 
dict; hence the element of doubt, entering the British mind, 
confused the commanders, and upset all their calculations. 

In Ferguson’s command was a trained and splendid Eng- 
lish soldiery, supplemented by Tories well acquainted with 
the character of the country. and as daring and obstinate 
fighters as ever trod the earth. The opposing forces, on the 
contrary, were raw, undisciplined militia from the Carolinas, 
Virginia, and Georgia. Being unaccustomed to battle, and 
having no success to their credit, they were pitted against 
some of the best fighters in the wide world. 

The Americans were a body of untrained frontiermen, 
with no artillery, no bayonets, no camp equippage. They 
were mostly men without uniforms, clad in jeans or cotton 
goods, woolen hats or coon-skin caps; some were barefooted, 
others with moccasons or coarse shoes. Each carried his 
trusty Deckard (a home-made rifle), with no haversack, except 
a wallet of parched meal, and a few pounds of maple sugar. 
A lot of leaderless settlers hastily summoned together, pos- 
sessing no knowledge of military tactics, equipped according 
to faney and opportunity, and having no plan of attack, no 
common understanding, save to take the mountain, they 
stormed the accounted impregnable position of Ferguson. — 


11 


When they reached the summit and discovered the huddled 
enemy, they wrought fearful execution. Before the British 
could fly, the fierce faces of the backwoodsmen burst upon 
them through the smoke, and with heavy rifles and ugly 
blades, the bloody work began, and within a few hours such 
destruction ensued as to blast England’s hope of sovereignty 
over the American continent. 

Ferguson died defiantly and sublimely. Disdainful, des- 
perate and full of fury, cutting down his assailants right and 
left with his sword, and swearing with his latest breath that 
he would never “surrender to such d——d banditti,” only 
fell from his horse when hacked with knives, pierced with 
bullets and clubbed with guns. When the brave commander 
fell, the rout and dismay of his soldiers were complete. 

There is no such picture in modern history, and no more 
remarkable battle in the wars of the ages. And nowhere in 
America have the backwoods pioneers left a more unmistak- 
able imprint than upon the rocky steeps of King’s Mountain 


 battle-field. 


‘‘Mighty mother of a lion line! 
Be proud of those strong sons of thine 
Who wrenched their rights from thee.”’ 


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